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A sweet elderly woman named Evelyn has been battling the discomfort, pain and embarrassing moments brought on by her dentures. She began to tear up thinking about her experience at her granddaughter's wedding the previous weekend. They served the family members steak, which she hadn’t been able to eat for years because of her dentures but she was too embarrassed to say anything. As she attempted to eat the steak, her poor fitting dentures began sliding around in her mouth. She was mortified as she discretely spit out the steak into her fabric napkin and laid it over her plate.

Removable teeth can simultaneously be a great help and a great difficulty for someone with missing teeth. While they may make work as a scotch tape fix, for long term they are, in essence, just devices that enable you to chew on your gums. Unfortunately, the consequence of chewing on your gums is bone loss.

Whether you are caring for your parents at home or your are overseeing their care at a long term care facility, dental care is something you want to pay close attention to. Dental care is so very important and can add years or take years off your parents life. If they are in need of dentures, partials, or implants to replace missing or broken teeth, be sure that you are taking into consideration overall health not just a quick fix or best budget friendly option.

Tooth pain is awful. It can be debilitating at times. It can sneak up on you like a thief in the night robbing you of sleep or throb all day like a beating war drum making it hard to concentrate on anything but the pain. The sad thing is that many people just try to stick it out and overlook it, making the problem even worse.

Some people worry they will make a poor decision but if they asked around, their friends probably have had the same issues and would be open for feedback. Many times we see adult children researching for their parents because they don’t want their parents to just fight through the pain and turn a blind eye to growing health concerns.

Have you ever been in a shoe store and watched people try on shoes? The majority of people want style and comfort but once in awhile you might hear someone comment how uncomfortable the shoe is but how cute it is and still contemplate purchasing it. Some people might be able to rationalize spending $50 -$100 on a pair of uncomfortable shoes if they are only planning on wearing them a short time, or once or twice. But would you consider spending thousands of dollars on a pair that are too uncomfortable to wear? Of course not.

We often find that patients do not know everything they should about caring for their teeth and gums. One of the most important things you can do after having dental implants is to maintain excellent oral care and diligently following your dentist’s instructions. You have to partner with your dentist on this. No matter how good your dentist is, if you fail to do your part, you could doom any work that the dentist does.

Do you have a child getting married or graduating soon and you’re dreading hiding your smile in pictures for the big day? Or maybe you are speaking at an upcoming seminar and want to smile confidently without covering your smile. Whatever your reason for considering implants, you may be wondering if you have time to get implants before the big day?

A common question we hear when someone is considering dental implants is, “How long do dental implant procedures take and how long before they can be used?” The actual procedure to implant the screw is relatively quick, just a visit to our office but the healing process varies. Each situation varies from person to person. The time can vary from a few months to a year, when bone and tissue must be re-built first. The time frame of putting the implant into use varies depending on an individual's situation.

When a person has worn dentures for many years, it can result in an enormous loss of jaw bone. Even a person missing a few teeth can experience bone loss because as soon as a tooth is lost the jaw bone begins reabsorption which will continue to increase over time.

Modern dentistry now has the ability to replace missing tissue and bone by grafting hard or soft tissue back where it needs replaced. While there are limits to what can be accomplished with this technique, it’s now part of what we do on a regular basis.